Networked printer systems allow a user to submit a print job for an electronic document to a queue or server that can subsequently be printed using one of a large number of different printers. The arrangement allows a user to walk to any one of the supported printers and select the job to be printed. In some print job configurations, an option exists for printing one or more test pages of the documents in order to evaluate the quality of printing or to determine if the document is printed in the proper form or format. The test pages may be helpful to identify an incompatibility between the print document generated by a print driver and the resulting print output from the printer for the electronic document. In some cases, a test mode may further be available that includes printing some or all of the document using a lower print quality.
Typically, one of the motives for printing test pages is to allow the user to decide whether to proceed with the print job on that printer or not. However, in many cases, the pages printed as test pages are not selectable by the user and may not be representative of the most challenging pages to print or the most important pages in terms of printing quality for the user. Regardless of the purpose for, and the result of, printing test pages, the test pages that are printed are not useable or even configurable to be made usable as part of printing the final version of the electronic document. As a result, when usable print output is finally produced, the user may have to proceed through the steps of resubmitting the print job to the print queue or printer to print the entire document. Further, if the print job has a large number of pages, the number of test pages, if not user selectable, may also be large, leading to increased use of paper or printable media and excess waste. The problem is further compounded if the user decides to create and request the same print job on multiple printers to evaluate the quality and all remain unsatisfactory. The user may additionally have to create a new or different print job for each submission to a different printer in order to address any printer compatibility issues described above. Therefore, there is a need to create a mechanism for printing test or sample pages of an electronic document evaluate print quality issues that do not result in unnecessary expense and waste of printing resources as well as materials, such as ink or and paper or other printable media.
Overview
Exemplary embodiments described herein include methods, systems, and apparatuses for printing and reusing customized sample sets while printing a document. An exemplary printing apparatus includes a printing engine that prints information on a physical readable medium. The printing apparatus also includes a print processor that receives instructions to retrieve an electronic document from a print queue and to process the electronic document in a sample print mode. The electronic document is arranged in a plurality of pages with each page containing readable information. The print processor further sends information for an identified subset of the plurality of pages of the electronic document to print using the print engine in a first phase of the sample print mode. The printing apparatus also includes a user interface that displays a message regarding the printing of the electronic document after the first phase of the sample print mode is complete. The print processor further provides remaining pages of the electronic document to print using the print engine in a second phase of the sample print mode in response to user input based on the message.
An exemplary apparatus includes a memory for storing a electronic document. The electronic document is arranged in a plurality of pages with each page containing readable information. The apparatus further includes a processor configured to process the electronic document retrieved from the memory in a sample print mode based on a first user input. The processor also sends instructions to print a subset of pages of the electronic document on a physical readable media in a first phase of the sample print mode. The subset of pages of the electronic document are identified based on a second user input. The processor additionally sends instructions to print remaining pages of the electronic document on the physical readable media in a second phase of the sample print mode. The instructions to print remaining pages are sent in response to a third user input based on a message displayed at the completion of printing in the first phase of the sample print mode.
An exemplary method includes receiving instructions to retrieve an electronic document. The electronic document is arranged in a plurality of pages with each page containing readable information. The method also includes receiving a command to process the electronic document in a sample print mode. The method additionally includes identifying a subset of pages of the electronic document to print in a first phase of the sample print mode and printing the subset of pages on a physical readable media in the sample print mode. The method further includes displaying a message on a user interface after completion of the first phase of the sample print mode and printing remaining pages of the electronic document on a physical readable media in response to user input based on the displayed message.
It should be understood that the drawing(s) are for purposes of illustrating the concepts of the disclosure and are not necessarily the only possible configuration for illustrating the disclosure.